Abstract

Growing demand for water resources due to increased population and improved living standards, have prompted public agencies and others in the Fertile Crescent (FC), a semi-arid region, to seek better ways to manage water. This paper discusses water supply-augmentation options (e.g., desalination, water importing, wastewater treatment, recycling, water conservation, reducing evapotranspiration and storage) to alleviate water scarcity generally, and in the FC countries in particular. Introduction of conventional and non-conventional measures to augment water supplies as well as narrowing of the gap between water supply and demand in water-scarce countries and regions was done. A conceptual supply augmentation method operationalized with secondary data suggests water supply augmentation is feasible in this region. Marginal cost (MC) principle was used to demonstrate optimal water supply by step-wise adoption of the supply-augmentation methods with the lowest MC. Three supply-augmentation options were most promising in the FC: (1) desalination of brackish water, (2) reducing evapotranspiration, and (3) water conservation. These three options can potentially add as much as 630 million cubic meter (MCM) over the next two decades, helping to solve the water-scarcity problem while considering sustainability and water quality for present and future uses.

Key words: Water scarcity, Fertile Crescent (FC), supply-augmentation options, marginal cost (MC).